Senate Concurrent Resolution
No. 102
CHAPTER 59
Relative to Justice for Janitors Day.
[
Filed with
Secretary of State
June 04, 2008.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SCR 102, Kehoe.
Justice for Janitors Day.
This measure would designate June 15, 2008, as Justice for Janitors Day to encourage California residents, property owners, businesses, and government entities to support the Service Employees International Union’s Justice for Janitors in its 2008 contract campaign and in its fight to win and maintain family health care coverage and improved wages and benefits for janitors.
Digest Key
Fiscal Committee:
NO WHEREAS, For more than two decades, the Service Employees International Union’s Justice for Janitors movement has helped low-wage workers achieve social and economic justice and earn broad-based support from the public as well as religious, political, and community leaders; and
WHEREAS, More than 225,000 janitors in cities throughout the United States have united in the Service Employees International Union, America’s largest union of property service workers; and
WHEREAS, Over the years, Justice for Janitors has worked to provide better wages, basic benefits, job security, and a better quality of life for janitors, who clean the facilities of some of the largest global companies in major cities and suburbs; and
WHEREAS, Public employee pension funds are major investors in buildings and properties cleaned by janitors represented by Justice for Janitors; and
WHEREAS, Justice for Janitors has been campaigning for “responsible contractor” policies that require janitorial contractors to respect the rights of workers and to pay decent wages and benefits; and
WHEREAS, Pension funds and brokerage companies that invest moneys in real estate are increasingly requiring the contractors who maintain their buildings to adhere to these responsible contractor policies and the use of these policies continues to move into the business mainstream, represented by more than four hundred billion dollars ($400,000,000,000) in real property assets; and
WHEREAS, In recent years, Justice for Janitors, through its partnership with responsible cleaning contractors, the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, state labor agencies, and local district attorneys, has recovered millions of dollars in lost overtime and minimum wages for thousands of janitors in California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, New Mexico, and Illinois; and
WHEREAS, In California, Justice for Janitors represents workers in the Silicon Valley, the entire San Francisco Bay area, and the Counties of Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, and Sacramento; and
WHEREAS, On June 15, 1990, janitors in Los Angeles were beaten by police during a peaceful demonstration against a cleaning contractor and the public outrage that was generated from this incident resulted in the contractor signing a union contract soon afterward and recognizing the Service Employees International Union as the bargaining agent for the janitors; and
WHEREAS, In remembrance of June 15, 1990, Service Employees International Union janitors and supporters take action every June 15 in cities nationwide and around the world; and
WHEREAS, In 2008, all of California’s union janitors will be seeking better health care, improved wages to keep up with the rising cost of living, and justice through collective bargaining to improve their lives and the lives of their families; and
WHEREAS, Seventy-five percent of janitors in San Diego have no family health care coverage, resulting in the only major market where the majority of janitors are not provided family health care coverage; and
WHEREAS, Justice for Janitors will be seeking support from the high-tech and biotech companies where janitors work, and from building owners and private equity investors whose buildings are cleaned by cleaning companies; and
WHEREAS, Justice for Janitors will be seeking support from businesses, government agencies, and individuals who are tenants of those building owners and private equity investors; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Legislature designates June 15, 2008, as Justice for Janitors Day in the State of California and that California residents, property owners, businesses, and government entities are encouraged to support the Service Employees International Union’s Justice for Janitors in its 2008 contract campaign and in its fight to win and maintain family health care coverage and improved wages and benefits for janitors; and be it further
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.